Israel-lebanese Airplane Incident Will Be Settled Between Both Countries, U.N. Reports

July 27, 1950

LAKE SUCCESS (Jul. 26)

United Nations headquarters here today received a report from the U.N. armistice commission in Palestine that the airplane incident on the Lebanese-Israel border which took place Monday evening is being settled through the Lebanese-Israel mixed armistice commission.

The report said that the Lebanese Government complained to the U.N. representative in Palestine that several passengers on a Lebanese airliner had been struck by bullets from an Israel fighter plane. Israel disclaimed responsibility for the incident, the report added.

Private reports from Lebanon said that two of the 28 passengers aboard the Lebanese airliner were killed and seven wounded. A report from Tel Aviv quoted official sources as saying that warning shots from an Israel fighter plane may have hit the Lebanese passenger plane when it flew over Israel territory without permission.

(From Tel Aviv it was reported today that Israel officials said that they had no details with regard to the Beirut reports alleging that the Lebanese plane was shot at, except to say that the Israel fighter pilot sighted the Lebanese airliner well within Israel’s borders and fired a warning burst since the Lebanese pilot did not heed his signals.)